Top Ten performances at Woodstock - 1969

[kentuck]

I returned from Nam in April and Woodstock was in August. I remember it well. I had a chance to go and turned it down. People wanted to see Jimi Hendrix.

http://ultimateclassicrock.com/woodstock-performances/

[PCIntern]

1. I know exactly one person who was there and

her brother and nephew were in the iconic picture on the cover of Rolling Stone. Young people ask me if I was there and I tell them, "Yeah, like my mother would have allowed me at age 16 to go to a three day rock and roll concert in the middle of nowhere. That was REALLY gonna happen even if I HAD HEARD THAT IT WAS GOING ON, which I hadn't beforehand.

[NRaleighLiberal]

2. Missing! - Ten Years After - I'm Going Home - Alvin Lee was remarkable

I was too young to be there but have seen the movie so, so many times!

[Omaha Steve]

9. IF you have a blu-Ray player this 40th anniversary version is the one to get

Review at link.



http://www.blu-ray.com/movies/Woodstock-3-Days-of-Peace-and-Music-Blu-ray/101648/#Review

[kentuck]

11. That would be cool.

I still have the old album, scratches and all.

[Omaha Steve]

12. So do we

[BeyondGeography]

17. Beat me to it

I think Alvin hopped on that guitar and flew home afterwards.

[Le Taz Hot]

26. Absolutely!

And "Volunteers?" Ewww. I mean, I loved Jefferson Airplane and all and I think "Today" is one of the most beautiful songs ever written but, "Volunteers?" Ick.

Alvin Lee -- Great performance but I can almost guarantee you he was speeding at the time. Still a GREAT set.

[Stardust]

32. Alvin was in good company. Speed fueled the Summer of Love.

[Le Taz Hot]

34. Santana (the whole band)

dropped acid thinking they were going to go on much later but they got called to go on earlier. Carlos Santana said he came on just before the band went on stage. Regardless, they did such a MAGNFICENT performance on "Soul Sacrifice" (especially the drummer who was only 17 at the time). I had just seen Santana in May of that year right before their first album came out.

[Stardust]

40. The 17-year-old drummer makes me smile. I spent a lot of time on the road in the early 70s.

My friend and I never met a hitchhiker we doesn't like. And I swear, it seemed like every other guy would claim to be a drummer for Santana.

I can't imagine tripping and looking out to that sea of people.

[wilt the stilt]

37. have you hear the whole jefferson airplane set

it is outstanding.

[Chipper Chat]

44. Yup!

This performance is my no. #1

[pinboy3niner]

3. I couldn't go, brother, but I had a good excuse

I was in-country in August '69. How do you think the Army would have reacted if I submitted an emergency leave request for Woodstock?

[Blue_In_AK]

4. Yeah, I missed Woodstock,

since I lived in the west, and got Altamont instead. Great...

[kentuck]

5. But you weren't one of the bodyguards...?

For Jagger? Huh?

[Blue_In_AK]

33. No, we were way, way in the back,

couldn't even tell what was going on exactly except the vibe was just bad the whole day. We didn't know about the guy getting killed until we heard about it on the radio on the way home.

[Jetboy]

6. My favorite is Sha Na Na 'At The Hop'

They were so full of energy and enthusiasm!

Although Sha Na Na dressed as greasers, they were with the hippies politically as their motto 'Grease For Peace' would indicate. All of the original guys were students at Columbia University- the smartest band in rock-n-roll!

[pinboy3niner]

7. Bowzer lives near me

I bumped into him once in my community and we had a long conversation. I think I still have his business card somewhere here. He's still a character!

But when you're talking 'At the Hop,' it's Danny & the Juniors!

[Jetboy]

10. It's hard to top the piano break in the Danny and the Juniors

original. I saw them play a few years ago (minus the deceased Danny) backed by Big Sandy and the Fly-rite Boys with Carl Sonny Leyland sitting in on piano and they were fantastic.

Bowser was around here a while back stumping for a Dem candidate. He is quite the character! He joined Sha Na Na after the Woodstock gig.

[pinboy3niner]

14. I know a guy who claims to be an original member of Danny and the Juniors

His story is that they gave him $15,000 and a brand new Chevy to cede his music rights when he joined the Army. But when I looked up the original members, he wasn't among them. At one point I asked him which one he was in the song, and he said he was the third "ba." I suppose the guy could have changed his name or used a pseudonym, but right now his story looks pretty flaky.

[Jetboy]

15. Sadly there's an imposter for just about every obscure old rocker.

Once in a while they get caught like when Etta James confronted a man claiming to be Larry Williams.

Did this guy go to Columbia University? If not that would be a big hint that he's an imposter.

[pinboy3niner]

18. Hell, I'm a Vietnam vet--I'm very familiar with impostors

The sad thing is that his guy is a VN vet, too.

[Omaha Steve]

13. Didn't Bowzer close the show with "Grease for Peace"?

[Cassidy1]

8. A number of bands turned down Woodstock for various reasons.

Some thought it was just another venue. Some were put off because it was on some remote farmland. Ian Anderson passed because of the possible nudity.

[wilt the stilt]

38. not many

like who didn't go. almost everyone went.

[madokie]

16. I got to 'Nam in mid June that year

Had some friends who extended in the navy to get some free leave so they could go. Brought back some pictures but it was one of those deals if you remembered it you weren't there. so there wasn't that many pictures for them to show us
If you get my drift.

Thanks. I'll check these out when I finish my grilling.
Hey we've had this gas grill for a couple years now and this is the second time I've actually used it. Trying not to burn some brats.

[kentuck]

19. Good luck on the brats!

Throw a couple of burgers on there, just in case...

[madokie]

21. I should have but didn't

to my wifes chagrin I like crackers crumbled up in my burgers. She never has understood that. I guess it comes from being poor and my mom having to stretch the meat as much as she could to feed us all. My salmon patties are the same way the more crackers the better.

[kentuck]

22. What kind of crackers?

Saltines?

[madokie]

23. Saltines

[pinboy3niner]

24. I think my mom used oatmeal to stretch the burgers

But she did make some great hamburger soup!

We were contemporaries in Vietnam. I got there at the very end of April '69.

[madokie]

25. Mid june of '69 to mid october of '70

came home for a free 30 day leave in August of '70 so that left with with 15 months incountry. I extended for 7 months so I could get a 11 month cut from my 4 year enlistment. Luckily tricky dick started bring us home and supposedly I was in the first plane load in that. Its been too long ago for me to remember all the particulars. all I know is I was ready to come home.

I'm happy that we both made it back, I just wish 58,000 plus other of our brothers and sisters could have been so lucky. That war, as they called it, was all for a lie too. I realized that within a few days of arriving in country. I think that is what helped me maintain what sanity I was able to leave there with.

[Dyedinthewoolliberal]

29. I was in the service July 68-72.

Disbursing office and part of a Separation Center for the Marine Corps at Camp Pendleton starting in Oct or Nov 1969. We processed guys out in about 3-4 days. Some of them had been in the bush only the week before and then they are back in the world. No decompress, no time to adjust, nothing............some of them had a real tough time.

[pinboy3niner]

31. I'm glad you made it too, brother

I was a grunt platoon leader in my 101st Airborne Division outfit when all of our platoon leaders were getting killed, including my friends. I was seriously wounded, but survived. But not a day goes by when I don't think of "those gentle heroes we we left behind."

If you are able,
save them a place
inside of you
and save one backward glance
when you are leaving
for the places they can
no longer go.
Be not ashamed to say
you loved them,
though you may
or may not have always.
Take what they have left
and what they have taught you
with their dying
and keep it with your own.

And in that time
when men decide and feel safe
to call the war insane,
take one moment to embrace
those gentle heroes
you left behind.

Major Michael Davis O'Donnel


After wriing that poem, Major O'Donnel was KIA.

[madokie]

45. Powerful words

We lost way too many and all for a lie. The Vietnamese were no threat to us. Sad chapter in our history if ever there is one.

Time has a way of healing some wounds, the rest never.

May we go through the remander of our lives knowing we did our best, sometimes I wonder who were the lucky ones. I've been carrying this burden for nigh onto 50 years now and the weight is no less now than it was then.
I've shed many a for those who gave their all

Peace Bro'

[napkinz]

20. 10 Rock Stars Who Didn't Play Woodstock And Why

3. Led Zeppelin
Reason: They Had A New Jersey Show

Led Zeppelin was invited, of course. But manager Peter Grant apparently decided that headlining their own concert was preferable. Instead, the band headed off to the Asbury Park Convention Hall in New Jersey, just south of Woodstock, for two of the festival's four days. Grant, in 'Led Zeppelin: The Concert File,' said "I said no because at Woodstock we'd have just been another band on the bill."

5. The Beatles
Reason: Yoko?

Rumors of the Beatles' appearance at Woodstock were everywhere, likely fueled by their surprise 1969 rooftop concert in London. Reasons as to why they ultimately did not play are just as rampant. One theory has John Lennon insisting that Yoko Ono appear on stage. Another cited immigration problems for Lennon. Still another, that the group simply couldn't get together at that late stage.

7. The Rolling Stones
Reason: Filming a Forgotten Movie

The Rolling Stones declined because Mick Jagger was in Australia that summer, filming a forgotten movie called 'Ned Kelly.' You don't remember 'Ned Kelly'? It's the poorly received 1970 Tony Richardson-directed biopic of a 19th-century Australian bushranger. Also, Keith Richards' girlfriend Anita Pallenburg had just given birth to son Marlon that week in London.

see the other seven at http://ultimateclassicrock.com/woodstock-who-didnt-play/

[Dyedinthewoolliberal]

27. I believe there were some good acts that didn't make the movie

so I can't really say...........

[SalviaBlue]

28. I pretty much agree wth their rating here

I was getting nervous as I scrolled thru and read the descriptions...where is Santana, where is Santana... but there they were at #2.

Santana's performance blew my 15 year old mind I have loved Carlos ever since.

Joe Cocker's Get By With a Little Help... is so good.

[Skittles]

30. they missed THE best performance

[vankuria]

35. Joan Baez

Singing "Joe Hill", I still get chills listening to it.

[seveneyes]

36. amen

[wilt the stilt]

39. I was there

and santana was the 3rd band on saturday after Quill and Keef hartley. They burned it down.

[Stardust]

41. Wonderful thread. It's overwhelming to hear from the Vets. eom

[DiverDave]

42. Richie Havens tore IT UP!

But I also vote for Ten Years After. Alvin Lee could play that guitar.

[pinboy3niner]

43. Gotta put a word in for Fogerty and CCR

Fortunate Son was one of our anthems in Vietnam.

[kwassa]

46. I was there, for the first day of music.

There is a semi-famous photo from Life magazine of a group of kids standing under a sheet of plywood in the rain there. I'm in the picture.